Rishi Sunak is no John Major

As the skies darken over Rishi Sunak’s embattled government, with ministers being fired or placed under investigation, opinion polls dire and few signs of better times ahead, Tory optimists are (somewhat desperately) searching for signs that all may not yet be irretrievably lost for their party.

The hopeful precedent that they have come up with is the 1992 general election. That year, things did not look good for John Major, the man who had replaced Margaret Thatcher under controversial circumstances just two years before. The opinion polls predicted a narrow but clear victory for Labour leader Neil Kinnock until Major, then a much-mocked figure, got on a soapbox – literally – and appealed to the public to be given a chance. His quixotic gesture caught the public’s imagination as the traditional British sympathy for the underdog shone through.

Then, all too characteristically, Kinnock shot himself in the foot by going over the top at a public meeting in Sheffield just before polling day: he seemed to be prematurely assuming victory by repeatedly shouting ‘Awright!’ at delirious followers.